


Study Abroad

by shimotsuki



Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-23
Updated: 2010-08-23
Packaged: 2017-10-11 05:44:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/109032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shimotsuki/pseuds/shimotsuki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After her student year on Beta Colony, Kareen finds that she has as many questions for Cordelia as Cordelia has for her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Study Abroad

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Bujold Fest 2010. Prompt: _Kareen &amp; Cordelia--student/mentor relationship; "having been on Beta for several months now, she realized she had begun to see Cordelia in a very different light"_

Kareen skipped down the wide front staircase, humming a little under her breath. Mark had rolled toward her, opened one eye, kissed her thoroughly, and mumbled something about getting up in just a minute. But she'd had some new ideas last night, and she couldn't wait to run them past Ma Kosti. Over a cup of strong coffee and some of those little apricot pastries, if her recent luck held.

Mornings were glorious. _Life_ was glorious.

"Good morning, Kareen!" Countess Cordelia, emerging from the library, intercepted her halfway across the foyer.

"Good morning, Tante Cordelia." She couldn't help grinning, but she refused to blush. The Countess, after all, was one of the few people in the house who thought it was _normal_ for her to spend the night here with Mark.

"You haven't had breakfast yet, have you? Will you join me?" Tante Cordelia's smile came out in full force. "We haven't really had a chance to talk since you came home."

Product development plans or no, Kareen could hardly refuse. Never mind her crucial student year on Beta Colony—now there was the Miracle of the Mystery Couch to thank the Countess for. Kareen followed her into the dining room, where an urn of coffee, a platter of fruit, and—yes—a pile of apricot pastries gleamed at one end of the long table.

Besides, there were things Kareen wanted to ask about, too.

Armsman Stavrou appeared out of nowhere, poured each of them a cup of coffee, and vanished once more. Kareen helped herself to a sliver of melon and a pastry.

"So." The Countess's friendly gray eyes studied her over the top of a delicate porcelain coffee cup. "What did you think of your Betan year?"

Kareen started to answer, but Tante Cordelia held up a finger.

"I'm not checking up on your studies—and anyway, I've already been informed that you did very well. But officially, you're the tenth recipient of the Elizabeth Naismith Scholarship, and unofficially, you're _Kareen_. What did you really think of the year away, as an overall experience? What does a young Barrayaran woman find for herself on Beta Colony?"

Kareen nodded and sipped at her coffee, trying to think through her answer. "I missed home, of course. And at first, everything was all strange and new. Plus, there was Mark, and—all."

The Countess nodded, one corner of her mouth tilting up in wry understanding.

Kareen poked at her pastry with a fork, considering.

"But all the time I was there, I had this amazing feeling of open space." She saw the Countess's lips twitch and grinned in reply. "Not physically! I mean something like _room_—room to grow, or room to _be_. As though there were possibilities out there for me beyond anything I could even imagine."

Tante Cordelia looked very pleased. "That's one of the things we most hope to accomplish with the scholarship program."

Kareen wondered if with her _we,_ the Countess was thinking of the Count, or of Gran'tante Naismith. But all these questions were reminding her of the ones that she had been wanting to ask.

"What about you?" she ventured. "What was it like for you when you came here?"

Had Captain Cordelia Naismith felt Barrayar close around her like a box?

The woman who sat across the breakfast table had always been Tante Cordelia to Kareen, in sedate Vor jackets and skirts, with her long hair wrapped around her head in braids or pulled back from her face with combs. But now Kareen had seen Gran'tante's old vids—of a girl, and then a serious young woman, with bright red hair worn loose or in a sensible Betan ponytail. And Kareen thought she had a pretty good idea why the Countess's wardrobe tended toward shades of beige and tan.

Even Enrique's appalled refrain—_holy saints, a Survey captain!_—cast a new shadow on Tante Cordelia's career as a political wife, working behind the scenes to help advance the Count's agendas. Which were the Countess's agendas, too, for the most part. _But._

"Well," said Tante Cordelia, "this certainly isn't the life I imagined living, when I was a girl." Something unreadable lurked behind those gray eyes. "I probably would never have come here if the...situation...at home hadn't forced my hand."

Kareen held her breath. She'd started this, and now she had no idea what to say.

But before the silence stretched too thin for comfort, those eyes suddenly softened into a smile. "Still, if I'd stayed home on Beta Colony after the Escobaran war, there is no question that a large slice of my heart would have been here with Aral, anyway." She reached over and squeezed Kareen's hand. "Don't you remember what I said the other day? No world is perfect. There are freedoms on Barrayar, too—things that Betans can only dream of."

_Children,_ thought Kareen. _Air, water, land._ Was it enough?

_Love._

She felt a surge of gratitude that being with Mark meant climbing _out_ of a box, not _into_ one, for her.

"I also think," said Tante Cordelia slowly, "that there is a certain honor in helping a world grow closer to reaching its potential." Her grin flashed. "When I first came here, very few respectable families would have been willing to send their daughters for a student year on Beta, for one thing." She poured more coffee into Kareen's cup. "Now tell me what you thought about the earrings. Mother explained all that to you, didn't she?"

Kareen grinned back, and started in on the tale of her adventures with socially symbolic Betan jewelry.

_She_ had more questions, too, but they could wait.

. * _fin_ * .


End file.
